Winemaker Notes
Very ripe nose. Super thick and oily fruit, very meaty. Some nice rich alcohol flavors; grapefruit marinated in sugar. A nutty finish.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A notable success this year is the 2019 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Caillerets. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of citrus oil, mandarin orange, white flowers, freshly baked bread and hazelnuts, it's medium to full-bodied, layered and taut, with a concentrated core of fruit, that's girdled by bright acids and chalky dry extract. Long and resonant, it's a tiny cuvée that's worth a special effort to seek out.
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Decanter
The wine is aged in 25% new casks, which seem to mark the wine at this point, however there is plenty of lemony fruit in evidence, as well as flinty, saline notes. On the palate there is admirable tension and length. Two barrels produced from purchased must, originating in very poor soils and 80-year-old vines at the top of the upper part of Caillerets.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
A Côte de Beaune village of Burgundy most famous for its beautifully textured and powerful whites, Chassagne-Montrachet reaches farthest south in the Côte d’Or, save for the village of Santenay. It has three Grands Crus vineyards: Le Montrachet, Bâtard-Montrachet and Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet. Le Montrachet and Bâtard-Montrachet overlap with and are (confusingly) shared with the village of Puligny-Montrachet. But Chassagne-Montrachet bears sole ownership of the Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru.
The beauty doesn’t stop there as the village has a great many outstanding Premiers Crus wines and village level wines. Most famous Premiers Crus vineyards include Les Chenevottes, Clos de la Maltroie, En Cailleret and Les Ruchottes. Also, village level wines offer many lovely examples of what Chassagne-Montrachet has to offer, but at more approachable price points and perhaps less demand of waiting.
The best sites in Chassagne-Montrachet have complex soils of sedimentary rock and limestone (with less marl). Whites, which are by law composed of 100% Chardonnay (as in all classified white Burgundy from Côte d’Or), have steely power, bright and concentrated citrus, stone or tropical fruit characteristics and attractive textures ranging from plush to tactile, grippy and mineral-driven.
There is some fine Pinot Noir produced from the village. These wines tend to be high-toned and earthy, with wild herb aromas and suave tannins.